


Weapons of war

by Exostrike



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Book 1: Air, Gen, Guns, Meta, Mystery, The Commander cometh, Wreckers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:53:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28257999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Exostrike/pseuds/Exostrike
Summary: There is something new in Republic City.In search of new weapons to fight the Equalist movement Korra witnesses a potentially devastating new weapon that could shift the balance of power of the entire world.The Gun.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

Korra leaned back in her chair in the hot sun and resisted the urge to waterbend the water out of a nearby jug. “Remind me what we’re doing here?” she asked.

“We are here to review the responses to our appeal for new technology and tactics against the equalists,” Tarrlok explained in a slightly annoyed tone. Most of the council along with several industrialists including Hiroshi Sato had been driven out to a military base outside of the city and had been sitting at a reviewing stand for a while.

“And I am here as well?”

“Having your presence here gives the event weight. It shows people we are taking the appeal seriously.”

“And gives you another photo opportunity with Korra,” Tenzin noted.

“I’m afraid the media weren’t invited today,” Tarrlok noted, ignoring the subtle jab. “Though perhaps if something comes out of this we shall.” 

Great, I’m just here for political reasons Korra realised and sunk back down into her seat as an official entered the reviewing stand and spoke with Tarrlok. “It appears the delay is over and they are ready to begin the demonstrations,” he said turning to the group. “The first item is a device for disabling airships.” And so began a long couple of hours of devices, machines, martial arts and bending moves that apart from a few highlights was incredibly boring. 

“That was certainly more, spectacular than the last,” Tenzin noted as the stretcher was carried away. The bender had been attempting to demonstrate yet another purported method of defeating chi blocking, though in this case he seemed to have cracked his ribs in the process. “Yes, the demonstrations today have been less promising than I hoped,” Tarrlok, slightly deflated, admitted. “What did you think, Mr Sato?”

“A few potential concepts. Perhaps with further development and testing something useful might be produced,” Hiroshi replied.

“Is there any more of this?” Korra asked. At this point she’d prefer trying to learn air bending.

“A few more,” Tenzin noted, checking the program. “An entry from a Krano Precision Instruments, a mechanical device for engaging a variety of targets and variable ranges. Not exactly the most enlightening description.”

“It’s probably another catapult,” she muttered as a man climbed onto the stand.

The man was middle aged with a gaunt face and spectacles and dressed in a slightly faded business suit took a deep formal bow to the assembled dignitaries “Ladies and gentlemen, I am Aojah Krano,” he said in a slightly tired voice. “It is a great honour to demonstrate my invention here today.”

“I’m afraid I don’t see any invention,” Tarrlok pointed out, the man had brought no device with him.

“If you would look at the end of the field,” Aojah said and pointed. Everyone raised field glasses to see a truck with the rear bed hidden by a fabric screen at the far end of the field, a distance usually reserved for siege artillery. “The weapon can engage at extreme ranges which we will now demonstrate against the targets” he pointed at a set of wooden bending targets in front of them. I don’t think siege artillery was what Tarrlok wanted Korra thought as Aojah raised a red flag.

Crack! A cloud of splinters exploded off the target. Crack! Another cloud of shards. Korra snapped up, fully alert and looked at the other end of the field. There was the boom of an explosion of some kind, a flash of fire and smoke from the truck and in the same second the crack of the target as it exploded again. She looked up at everyone staring in shock and disbelief at what they were seeing. This was something new, something deadly. Aojah lowered the flag and attacks stopped. “You have just seen the weapon in action. However it is possible to achieve a significantly higher rate of fire by harnessing the recoil of the action,” he raised a pair of red flags this time. 

The booming cracks started up again so rapid this that they merged into a single continuous noise. The target and the ground around it exploded with impacts, clouds of earth shooting high into the air. Imagine what it would do against people, Korra realised as she watched the targets being reduced to stumps. Sure bending wasn’t bloodless, especially if a fire bender lost control or you got a boulder chucked at you. But this, this was something else. There was something unnaturally violent about it.

The weapon stopped firing with a thud leaving the field in stunned silence. “Incredible,” Tarrlok muttered quietly.

“I agree with you,” Hiroshi Sato said, looking the most shocked and almost concerned out of the entire group. By comparison Tenzin’s expression was one of horror.

“You have seen the weapon’s effectiveness against soft targets. Now we shall demonstrate its penetrative ability about armoured targets,” Aojah said, seemingly not hearing their comments, and waved a blue flag. A truck slowly pulled into view, its rear loaded with barrels of water and one side totally covered in thick armour plate. “As you know advances in metallurgy have produced highly resistant armour. However the weapon, with the appropriate projectile will be able to penetrate it.” 

He raised a blue flag and the truck slowly started moving across the firing range. When he raised the red flag there was the flash from the end of the field and an almighty clang from the truck as something hit the plating and tore straight through, blowing open the barrel on the other side, water splashing on the ground. Again and again the truck was hit and penetrated, almost knocking it over at one point. The truck was brought around to the reviewing stand to see the effect on the armour, holes blown straight though, entire plates cracked, massive deformaities and a metal object of some kind, perhaps the weapons projectiles, lodged in it where it hadn’t gone all the way through. Aojah seemed displeased that that had happened but everyone was too busy staring at the other impact to notice.

“For our final demonstration, we will show the weapon’s ability to engage fast moving air targets,” Aojah said and raised a yellow flag. A target airship was released, an old police ship with some of its armour removed, not that it was going to matter, looking at the truck. The craft flew fast over the demonstration area at a medium height. Again there was the crack, crack of the weapon and puffs of smoke, shifting at the weapon tracked the airship as it passed overhead, a metal object that roared flame appearing for a second before disappearing again. The airship shuddered as it was hit repeatedly, chunks of metal falling from its side. There was a bang as one of the engine pods burst into flames and a gas bag burst. Fatally wounded the craft entered into a slow dive, crashing into the ground just outside of the base. “We apologise for any damage caused by the crash” he said humbly. nodding at the column of smoke rising from the crash. “That concludes our demonstration for today. I hope it has made an impression,” he continued, bowing again and leaving the review stand.

Everyone was silent for a second as he walked away towards the hanger where the contestants had been preparing. Then Tarrlok turned to an official. “Halt the remaining entrants,” he ordered and turned to everyone else. “Have you seen anything like it?” he asked.

“No I certainly have. Future industries might not be a weapons manufacturer but I have heard of nothing like this in development in the civilian market,” Hiroshi said.

“And I can confirm the military has nothing like this in development either,” Lin Beifong who had been fitting in almost silent during the demonstration. Despite her usual stoic personality she was clearly as disturbed as everyone else.

“I’m surprised a minor company like Krano Precision Instruments could produce something so revolutionary,” Hiroshi commented.

“I’m sure people said the same about Future Industries,” Tenzin pointed out.

“Either way I, we need to know more about this weapon,” Tarrlok said, getting to his feet. “I get the feeling we may have found what we were looking for.” I see no one asked my opinion, Korra noted as everyone got up.

The group moved quickly to the contest’s preparation area just as the truck with the mysterious weapon drove in, its cargo covered with a tarp. “It appears that my little demonstration has attracted some attention,” Aojah said, pausing from speaking to an assistant as they approached.

“Yes, your demonstration was most... impressive,” Lin said.

“Would you tell us more?” Tarrlok asked.

“I suppose I have kept my invention secret long enough,” Aojah said and signaled his assistants. The men pulled back the tarp to reveal the strange device. It was composed of a mechanical device with a feed chute of some kind at the top and a long barrel that ended in a flared cone. Two operator stations were seated either side of things which appeared to control the elevation and rotation gearing that was mounted to the truck bed.

“It’s a cannon. I’ve seen them in museums,” Tenzin realised. Korra had heard of them, fire nation weapons developed in the last years of the great war. Using explosives to hurl projectiles at great speed and force. Beyond a few experiments the technology had proved to be a dead end.

“It is more than a simple cannon,” Aojah said, stepping forward. “I have taken the technology to the next stage?”

“How?” Tarrlok asked, running his eyes over the weapon.

“I am unwilling to talk about my work with potential competitors present,” Aojah said, coughing slightly and looking at Hiroshi.

“You have my word as a gentleman,” he said.

“I suppose I can talk in generalities,” Aojah said, sounding unconvinced. “The thing holding back the development of firearms has always been the explosive and the projectile.” An assistant approached holding a long brass cylinder with a pointed steel cone at one end. “I realised that containing the explosive charge within a metal case with an aerodynamically shaped projectile not only made for a more effective weapon, it also drastically improved ease of use. At this point I turned my attention to improving the weapon itself,” Aojah turned to the cannon itself as the assistant lowered the shell. “Analysis of original cannon designs showed a muzzle loading method was ineffective and slow, allowing benders to counter each attack or simply close the range. What was needed was a breech loading mechanism to speed up the reloading process. At that point in this age of automation and mechanics was there a way of reload and fire faster than the human hand and here we are.” 

He contained talking about how the weapon worked as Korra walked around to examine the device. Something about using the recoil of the explosion to load a second round. “What is this?” she asked, pointing at a brass plaque on the side. It was covered in illegible symbols. 

“The what?” Aojah said, turning to look at the object. “Oh that, a good luck charm from an island chain just off the fire nation. You must excuse my superstitions,” he explained.

“Oh I wasn’t,” Korra tried to explain. It was just that she’d never seen a language like that before but Tarrlok stepped forward.

“Mr Krano, your device is revolutionary. The council will gladly put it into production immediately,” he said.

“The council has not made any decision yet,” Tenzin pointed out.

“I am confident they will see the value of such a weapon,” Tarrlok countered. “Name your price?” he added to Aojah. 

“I am not willing to sell my invention to the government, however I am willing to discuss a production contract,” he explained, sniffing slightly as if offended, and adjusting his glasses.. Korra could have sworn Hiroshi’s face twitch into a grim for a second. “Plus I feel you should continue with the remaining contestants. I would hate to feel like my competitors' proposals were unduly ignored,” he added in a humble manner.

“He does have a point. We should return to the reviewing stand,” Tenzin said.

“I hope you don’t mind if I place you under police escort from now on, given the obvious value of your device?” Lin asked, though it was clearly a statement.

“I understand the sensitivity of the situation,” Aojah consented.

He watched the group leave the workshop and then turned to face his invention. After a brief examination of the mechanism he took out a screwdriver and removed the brass plaque from the side of the receiver. He examined it, the words “40 mm Automatic Gun M1 Property of United States government” staring up at him before he hid the plaque away under a cloth.


	2. Chapter 2

Tarrlok called a council meeting the moment they returned to the city and insisted Korra attend. Korra was supposed to be training with Mako and Bolin but she knew she should be at the meeting, so she’d sent a message and went. Tarrlok laid out his position the moment the meeting started. “We have all witnessed a revolutionary weapon that could be the turning point in our struggle with the Equalists. I propose we start procurement and fielding of the weapon to the police and military without delay,” he said. Tenzin rose to his feet to deliver his inevitable counter argument.

“While the exhibited weapon is indeed revolutionary, I question whether it is appropriate to field such weapons in a civilian environment. Would using such weapons against citizens of this city I remind you, simply turn more of the population to their side?”

“I was talking about deploying them with the anti-equalist task force. I was not suggesting we mount them on every airship and use them against bank robbers. Then again.” Tarrlok paused for a moment to consider the idea while Tenzin looked at him in disgust but remained silent. “And what about the Equalists? Given their apparent ability to strike as they please,” he continued, looking pointedly at Lin. “What is there to stop them from taking the weapon from Mr Krano while we engage in this philosophical debate? We need to move now.”

“I have ordered a covert police presence around Krano Precision Instruments and Mr Krano personally. Officers I trust,” Lin countered icely.

“That still doesn’t mean they don’t already know about the weapon.” Lin glanced away and grunted an acknowledgment of the point. “In any case I would advise a cautious approach,” she warned, turning to face the council. “While these cannons would be a powerful weapon, they would work the equalists to get their own cannons, either by stealing them or developing them themselves.”

“My point exactly,” Tenzin cut in. “If we have them, everyone must have them. We haven’t even considered the international implications. It could start a global arms race.”

“I have heard similar fears from the military. For that reason I propose we procure a number of the weapons, but we do not field them until the Equalists attempt open revolt. That way we at least retain the element of surprise.”

“But that would lose the deterrent aspect,” Tarrlok pointed out. “What does the Avatar think?” he added, turning to look at Korra for the first time. 

Why did he have to ask me, Korra thought. “I am conflicted,” she admitted after a moment’s thought. “While I agree with Tenzin that I feel there is something morally wrong with these weapons, I can’t deny Tarrlok’s point about needing these weapons to fight the Equalists. I suppose Lin’s plan is the best solution, a middle ground,” she continued. She knew she was taking the easy solution of just relaying the decision but at least it would move things forward.

“Thank you Korra. Often admitting that you are unsure is harder than backing something you don’t believe in,” Tenzin said.

“Chief Beifong’s proposal is acceptable,” Tarrlok said, clearly bitter that Korra had not supported his position. 

  
  
  
  


“I just feel it is ultimately morally wrong to use such a weapon. They are an indiscriminate device,” Tenzin said, trying to turn the conservation around to his side.

“And what about Amon? Do you think he will show such moral restraint? Can you imagine the carnage he could unleash with these guns? If the equalists have these weapons we must have them too. Preferable before!” Tarrlok countered. Tenzin sighed and pursed his forehead.

“You have a point,” he conceded, clearly hating himself for failing to put up a better argument.

The rest of the council vote was mostly a quick formality, the other councillors falling in behind the major personalities. “Now all we need to do is secure the weapons themselves,” Tarrlok noted.

“It is late,” Lin noted rising to her feet. “The negotiations will have to wait until the morning.”

“Is that wise? The Equalists may already know about the weapon and be planning to steal it.”

“I doubt the Equalists could find out about the weapon so quickly. In any case based on experience Amon is not one to launch unplanned operations. I feel we can at least afford a night.”

“Fine, but if anything happens I will be holding you responsible,” Tarrlok warned. Lin looked at him coldly.

“I am the chief of police. It's my purpose,” she noted. With that the meeting ended, at least it was short Korra though as she headed off to training.

The Equalists didn’t strike at Aojah or the weapon during the night and so the next morning Korra found herself in an automobile with Tenzin being driven to yet another meeting, this time at Aojah’s factory. She looked out of the window as they drove through the suburbs of the city. The businesses out here were small and run down, signs for cheap clothes, sand wholesalers and plumbing supplies stared back at her, a lot of them closed or abandoned. It hardly seemed the place to find a world changing weapon. The vehicle pulled up outside one of the larger businesses on the road, a small factory made up of several buildings. Krano Precision Instruments said a sign above the entrance. While the letters had recently been repainted the rest of the sign was faded and peeling.

Officer Lin and some officers were standing outside as Korra got out of the car, a police wagon just pulling away. “Trouble?” Korra asked, pointing to the disappearing van.

“No, just some criminals my men picked up over the night,” Lin replied.

“I see,” Korra muttered. She’d read newspapers attacking the police for inadequately policing the outer districts, she was beginning to see what they meant. 

Another car pulled up and Hiroshi Sato and Tarrlok got out of it. “Mr Sato, what are you doing here?” she asked.

“I negotiated with future industries this morning to leverage its production capacity to produce the weapon. Mr Sato is here to negotiate the details,” Tarrlok explained.

“I wasn’t informed of this,” Tenzin said.

“The deal was only agreed upon an hour ago. While of course we will secure the assent of the council, you surely recognise the logic of the agreement?” Tenzin paused for a moment before silently accepting Tarrlok’s logic.

“Good, then let us meet with Krano,” he said, leading the group to the entrance of the building. 

They entered a rather small reception area with plastic plants and fading wallpaper before an employee, one of the ones that had been at the demonstration ushered them through into the building which was entirely devoted to the factory. Aojah’s office appeared to be his personal workshop, a writing desk piled with books sat at the edge of a large workshop. The weapon took up the centre of the space, partly disassembled when they entered, Aojah working on some of it. “Ah forgive me gentlemen. I was not informed of your arrival,” he said, looking up as they entered and stepping away from his workbench.

“We are sorry to take you away from your work,” Hiroshi said, looking at the parts on the bench. “Encountered a problem?”

“No,” Aojah replied as he quickly washed his hands. “Experimenting with improving durability of components with alternative alloys.”

“Hum, yes the new alloys allow us to do what was impossible a few years ago.”

“I’m sure we can discuss the finer technical details later on,” Tarrlok said, stepping forward to take command of the conversation. “But we do have more important things to do first.”

“Oh course,” Aojah said, moving the group to several chairs in front of his desk and sitting down behind it. Tarrlok and Hiroshi sat in front while everyone filled up the rest of the room, Korra at the back while policemen stood at the entrances.

“Mr Krano, as a member of the city council I am here to sign a deal for the weapon,” Tarrlok said in his most smug official voice, taking time to look at the weapon next to them.

“You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t.”Tarrlok paused, distracted for a second.

“That is correct. We would like to purchase twenty examples of the weapons, along with the option to purchase another fifty. With the possibility of further orders.”

“An acceptable starting position. You will of course need ammunition supply for the guns, along with spares and crew training. I suggest a starting supply of five thousand rounds per gun.”

“And what is your price for the weapon?”

“For the initial twenty pieces?” Aojah touched his fingers together in thought. “I think a hundred thousand yuan a piece would be acceptable?

“A hundred thousand? You surely can’t expect us...”

“That is of course just for the initial pre-production run,” Hiroshi quickly pointed out. “Once you move into full scale production the economies of scale will reduce the per unit price.”

“Of course, we could probably be able to shave a quarter off the unit price,” Aojah confirmed after a quick mental calculation. Tarrlok remained unconvinced and glanced at Lin for confirmation.

“From my experience with military procurement such things are common,'' she noted. 

“Of course, but more importantly, how quickly can you complete them?”

“To move from the prototype to production? Several weeks, to complete the initial order? Several months,” Aojah replied, Tarrlok looked perturbed, clearly too long for his liking.

“Mr Krano,” Hiroshi said. “Given the urgency of the situation facing the city, for the public good I propose we combine our resources to produce the weapons as soon as possible.”

“I was wondering why you were here,” Aojah said, eyeing Hiroshi. “I would be foolish to simply hand a future competitor my designs and allow them to build the weapon as well.”

“This will be a point project as partners.” Hiroshi tried to reassure him. “And we will pay a generous licensing fee. We are not Varrick Global Industries afterall. We will ensure your intellectual property is respected.” Aojah looked unconvinced. He signalled to his assistant to come over. Turning away from the group they had a hushed discussion for a few seconds before Aojah turned to face them again.

“As you said, for the good of the city I agree with your proposal for me to work with you on producing the weapon,” he said. Tarrlok smiled in delight. “However I have several conditions,” he warned.

And so began endless legal talk between Aojah and Hiroshi about producing the weapon. Korra didn’t understand most of it but it was clear the Hiroshi wanted Future Industries to be involved at all stages of manufacture while Aojah wanted them to only produce secondary components and perform final assembly. The receivers, the core of the weapon would be made only by Krano Precision Instruments. Hiroshi countered that that was an inefficient production bottleneck but Aojah would not be swayed and Tarrlok had to talk Hiroshi into accepting the condition. Korra spent most of this time trying to bend the sand between the workshop’s floor tiles without anyone noticing. Bending fine objects was hard enough without having to think about two different forms at once. Lin almost certainly noticed her doing it but she didn’t react, at least not yet.

“So Mr Krano, what are we going to call your weapon?” Tarrlok asked as they came to the end of the discussions “We can’t simply keep calling it the device can we?. Perhaps the Krannon?” he suggested, looking at Hiroshi who smiled at the joke.

“Nothing so egotistical. Internally we call it the type 2 cannon,” Aojah replied, barely acknowledging it.

“Type 2? You mean this isn’t your first design.” Hiroshi asked. Aojah gave a little smile and adjusted his glasses.

“I did say my first step was developing the shell,” he said and signalled his assistant to pull aside a curtain to reveal a larger cannon. It was obviously a simpler design without the reloading mechanism and rotational controls, the barrel instead being fixed in position with minimum elevation gearing and mounted on two rubber road wheels with a long limber. “My first design, the type 1. A simple development of the designs of the great war while we worked on the shell design before miniaturisation during the development of the type 2.” 

He withdrew a small object from his pocket and held it between his fingers. It was like the shells they’d seen before but in miniature with the projectile larger in proportion to the explosive case. “This is the latest result of our continued efforts. An example of what can be done with modern technology,” he handed the object to Hiroshi who examined it.

“Impressive,” he muttered, handing it back after a brief examination. “But for what purpose?”

“I think you have guessed.” Aojah smiled and signalled his assistant again. A sheet was pulled off a workbench to reveal a new gun. This one was much smaller, almost man portable. It had an oversized barrel with a hose running off it to a can of some kind. “This is the type 3, though I was thinking of calling it a repeater. The smaller size of the bullet means less recoil and heat, allowing us to sustain a much higher rate of fire than the type 2. It is quite impressive to watch actually.” Now that is a machine made for killing, Korra thought. At least the others you could see being used against machines and fortifications, even if they would still have people in them, but the gun Aojah turned towards them to show off the belt feed loading mechanism and water cooling with projectiles so small only existed to kill people.

“And this is my latest creation,” Aojah said and picked something up from the otherside of the bench. “The type 4 handheld repeater. The same ammunition of the type 3 fired from a receiver small enough to be held and operated by a single person.” He presented the object for inspection. Korra stepped forward to looking at it. It was a long stamped metal box which from the other designs was the receiver. A curved ribbed metal box protruded out of the bottom of the weapon next to a catch, clearly the weapon’s supply of bullets. Just behind it was a switch and a handle, clearly how the gun was fired. Sticking out beyond it was a long wooden stock clearly to hold the weapon as Aojah demonstrated, sliding the stock into his shoulder and holding the switch and handle in his hand. Out the out end juttered the barrel along with a secondary barrel above it. A post and some kind of sight at the end of both.

“Does it shoot two bullets?” she asked.

“No,” Aojah said, smiling at her apparent mistake. “It’s part of a new method of achieving repeated firings. I take a portion of the gas produced by the reaction to load and fire another cartridge,” he explained, pointing to various parts of the weapon as he explained the concept. 

Tarrlok stroked his chin and looked again at the newly revealed weapons. “Mr Krano, I know we have just been negotiating for production on the Type 2, but I feel that we need to include the other types in the contract immediately,” he said, looking a little pale.

“You see too how more effective the new types are?,” Aojah said. “Once again I have ushered in a new revolution in military technology.”

“Perhaps not a second revolution. The first has barely begun,” Lin pointed out.

“You have a point,” Aojah admitted, mildly annoyed at being corrected. “Still you must agree with me that these weapons will transform the world. Soon it won’t matter if you are a bender or not. Everyone is equal against a gun,” he added, tightening his grip on the gun. 

Everyone froze for a second. Surely he couldn’t be an equalist all this time Korra thought. “That sounds almost equalist,” Tarrlok noted, carefully phrasing his words.

“Oh, I feel you have misinterpreted my words” Aojah said, putting the hand repeater back on the table. “While I admit I sympathise with their cause, their solution is abhorrent. We should not destroy bending, we simply need to create a balancer for the none bender. One these hand held repeaters certainly can provide. They will even ensure world peace.”

“What do you mean?” Korra asked. 

“Think about it. With every nation with weapons like this war will become impossible. The loss of life too would be too monstrous to justify. Peace in our time forever.” But some people could justify it, Korra thought. Amon certainly would. Images filled her mind. Men advancing across blasted muddy ground only to be gunned down by repeaters or blown apart by artillery, of airplanes bombing cities, of giant lumbering tracked vehicles spitting out flame and death.

Suddenly one of the walls of the room exploded, a guard sent flying under a cloud of rubble. Korra head snapped around, already jumping to her feet to see a figure dressed in strange white armour come charging through the pillowing smoke. “Will you turn off the fucking WW1 physic transmission! We could hear it from down the street!” the man shouted and raised a repeater to his shoulder and fired.

A policeman, already rushing forward, crashed backwards, blood pouring from a gaping wound in his chest. Three more figures appeared through the smoke. There was no consistency between their clothes, one in grey with a coal scuttle like helmet, another one with his face covered in a brown cloth mask with hoses running out of it and the final one in a red and black uniform, they were all carrying repeaters of different designs. “Protect the council members!” Lin ordered and bended the room’s stone floor into a makeshift wall to stop the attackers. It was unlikely that handheld guns could pierce stone that thick.

“Who are these guys?” Korra asked.

“We can worry about that later. We need to get out of here!” Tenzin said. 

One of the attackers appeared at the edge of the wall, Korra sent a fireball in that direction and they pulled back. “Target the supporting characters” a voice seemed to come from the other side of the wall There was a sharp pop and something flew overhead and exploded just above another police officer, showering him in shrapnel. “This way! We can get out the back way,” one of Aojah’s assistant shouted, waving everyone towards a corridor that lead off from the room.

Something whistled past Korra’s head as they made for the corridor. The attackers had got round the wall, blocking their escape with a hail of bullets. Aojah’s assistant pulled out some kind of single handed gun and fired at their attackers repeatedly. A barrel like storage compartment rotating with every shot. Why didn’t they show off that Korra thought as she hurled another fireball. It knocked a chunk of stone off the wall, forcing the attackers to cease fire. The group was just about to race for the corridor when another explosion filled it with smoke. Of course there would be a second group Korra realised. More attackers came rushing towards them, though this time she recognised their uniforms. “Equalists!” she shouted and prepared for the onrushing attack.

Suddenly the front ranks of the equalists exploded in a shower of blood. She looked around to see their attacks firing down the corridor at the equalists . What was going on? She thought, why would they kill their own side? An attacking equalists attempted to hurl a gas grenade before he was gunned down, the hissing device rolled across the floor and exploded. “Back! Back!” Tarrlok shouted, gasping as he breathed in the gas. Tenzin bended the gas away with a quick blast as everyone retreated, their attackers continued to exchange fire. 

“We need to get out of here now!” Aojah’s assistant said, struggling to reload his weapon.

“Suggestions?” Hiroshi asked.

“We bend the wall and make our own exit,” Lin said. The gunfire suddenly stopped, the assistant looked up as if expecting something. “Both of us together Korra,” Lin said and prepared for the movement, Korra dropping into the same pose ready to bend.

Suddenly something was flung over the wall. “Down!” the assistant shouted, pushing Aojah to the floor. Korra barely had to register what was happening when the device exploded. A solid wall of noise knocked her off her feet and smashed her into a table, something crashed down onto her back. She lay there stunned. From what she could see the rest of the group was in a similar state. Only Aojah and his assistant who had been furthest away from the device were struggling to their feet.

Then out of the corner of her eyes came their enemies appeared, weapons at the ready. As they approached Aojah his assistant stepped forward to block their path, his weapon raised. Only for it to be knocked out of his hand as one of them jumped him. There was a brief moment of crude hand to hand fighting, before he was felled with a punch to the jaw. Aojah dropped into a classical combat pose for a second before he was violently kicked across the floor. “We have the target!” the red and black man shouted as he hauled up the assistant office off the floor. They’ve got the wrong man Korra thought, still stunned. They wanted Aojah.

“Do we want the frontman?” the masked man asked, knocking Tenzin’s head with his boot.

“Negative. Leave him. Plant the charges and we’ll withdraw!” the man in white, clearly the leader, ordered. The man in red and black lifted the assistant onto his back while the masked man placed some kind of device on the weapons.

“Clear!” said the men in the coal scuttle helmet, checking a nearby corridor.

“Ok, time to destroy these things before they pollute this timeline even more,” the leader said and clicked something. There was a series of flashes and the hiss of a chemical reaction and the smell of melting metal. With that the attackers started moving towards the exit.

No I’m not going to let them win like this, Korra thought. Fighting the pain still ringing through her ears she pulled herself to her feet. A quick look around showed that everyone else was still dazed or unconscious. “Stop!” she ordered, dropping into a combat stance. The men turned to look at her.

“Leave her” the leader said dismissively, starting to turn away.

“I said stop!” she yelled and bended a rock at his head. It wasn’t a very beautiful move but screw it her blood was up. 

The rock shot across the room in an instant with enough force to kill. Only to bounce off the thin air just in front of the man with a fizz and shimmering burst of particles. Korra stared in shock, that was impossible. “People really need to know when to quit it,” the man commented, fiddling with someone on his repeater. “Sweet dreams Korra,” he said and aimed the weapon at her. She tensed ready to bend a barrier the moment he fired. Suddenly there was a blinding blue flash and every muscle in her body was writhing in pain. She collapsed to the floor, darkness overwhelming her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so the true game unfolds. As you might be beginning to tell there is more going on here than meets the eye.


	3. Chapter 3

Korra hit the ground hard, defeated. Amon towered above her, victorious. She struggled to get away but he was too strong. He raised his hand, ready to take her bending away as he had promised, but it was not empty, a gun was in his grip. He placed the weapon against her forehead, and pulled the trigger. 

Korra bolted upright in shock. “Korra you’re awake!” Bolin shouted, jumping from his chair. She resisted an instinctual urge to fire bend him and glanced around. She appeared to be in some kind of hospital bed, Bolin and Mako rushing to her side. No Amon. No attackers with guns. No threats.

“Where am I?” she muttered.

“You’re in the hospital. You’re safe now,” Mako explained.

“What happened? There were equalists and others.” She put a hand to her head to find an adhesive bandage on her forehead and another on her arm, injuries she’d barely noticed in the fight. 

“We don’t know the full details. We were with Asami when they telephoned saying her father had been taken to hospital.”

“There was some kind of grenade, was anyone hurt?”

Before Mako could answer the door was pushed open and Asami entered. “Oh,” she said, seeing that Korra was awake. “Good to see you have recovered. I’ve spoken with dad, he’s shaken but alright,” she said, turning to Mako.

“Was anyone else injured?” Korra repeated her question.

“As I understand only some policemen were injured. Most of you were brought to the hospital as a precaution,” Asami explained.

“Is Chief Beifong here as well?”

“She is already up and interrogating the person you went to see, Aojah I think.”

“I need to speak to her.” Korra struggled to get out of bed and picked up her jacket.

“Shouldn’t you rest?” Mako asked.

“No. I need to tell her what I saw,” Korra replied heading out of the room. 

Korra strode through the corridors to find a group of policemen standing at the entrance to a room. “So you don’t know of any persons and groups that may seek violence against you or your company?” Lin with a full head bandage and sitting on a back to front chair asked Aojah, who was in the hospital bed.

“Outside of the weapon projects? No, I always delivered upon contracts and settled my debts. I don’t know with any personal grudges against me to take such action,” Aojah replied, clearly a little irritated at the interrogation.

“You can be surprised at how so-called little grudges can grow,” Lin commented, sounding like she, if she ever didn’t, wasn’t enjoying it either. “Did anyone else know of the weapon?”

“No. We ensured only people inside the company knew, and even then only the inner team knew the full details.”

“Chief Beifong,” Korra cut in as she entered. “Aojah’s assistant was taken by the attackers.”

“A fact I am well aware of,” Lin said, turning to look at her with an expression of irritation.

“Yes, it is vital Ralu is found,” Aojah explained. “He is vital to the weapon.”

“It's not just that,” Korra said and explained what else had happened.

“Interesting. Whoever they were they have advanced technology. Most pressing question is where they gain access to, repeaters I think you call them,” she said, turning back to Aojah.

“As I said I do not know. They were not my design and in any case we had only produced two complete units,” he explained.

“Could someone have developed repeaters independently? Firearms are not a new technology,” Lin asked.

“It is possible,” Aojah admitted after a moment’s consideration. “But I find it highly unlikely they would reach the same overall design so quickly.” He shifted in his bed, seemingly uneasy at the possibility. 

The figures of Tarrlok and Hiroshi Sato appeared at the door to the increasingly crowded hospital room. Out of everyone in the group Tarrlok appeared to have suffered the most if the bandage across his nose was any indication. “Mr Krano,” Tarrlok said as he entered the room and approached Aojah’s bed. “This shocking attack has once again demonstrated the need for the police to be armed with your repeaters. With Mr Sato’s help I implore you to begin production as soon as possible.” Aojah looked at the faces around the room with confusion.

“I would have to speak to my assistant. It is vital that he is found,” he muttered looking somewhat uneasy.

“Surely one man, no matter how important, would not stop you moving into production?”

“No!” Aojah shouted, slamming his hand against his side table. “You don’t understand! I need Ralu!”

“Surely…”

“No! I will not agree to anything until Ralu is found.”

“I am afraid you are overwhelming him,” a nurse said, stepping forward. Lin seemed like she was about to protest but looking at Aojah again decided she wasn’t going to get anything more and complied, the policemen started leaving the room.

“How is the investigation going?” Korra asked Lin as they left.

“Investigations are ongoing,” she simply replied.

A policeman raced up to Lin. “Thought you’d want to see this ma’am,” he said, handing her a report. “We’ve been interviewing the workers at the factory for details about the assistant, named Ralu Teng, but they say they don’t know anything about him.”

“What do you mean?” Lin said, stopping and flipping through the report.

“Most of the workers have no knowledge of him, a few of them said Aojah didn’t have an assistant. Others knew he worked in the factory but nothing beyond that. The company's personnel files don't list him as an employee either. We’ve checked with city records and they have no records of a person with that name. I know city records aren't perfect but as far as we can tell Ralu Teng doesn’t exist.” The policeman pointed to several pages in the report. A cold edge entered Lin’s face.

“That is most interesting,” she said, spinning around and walking back towards. “I think we need another talk with Mr Krano.” She opened the door, ignoring a protest from the nurse inside and slammed the door. Korra heard raised voices on the other side.

“How is Aojah doing?” Asami asked as Korra walked back down to the room she’d been in.

“He’s awake but he just keeps asking for his assistant, says he won’t talk about the weapons until he’s found,” Korra said, filling them in about what had happened.

“Do you think the police will find him?” Mako asked.

“Honestly Chief Beifong didn’t sound very confident. The police have had enough problems dealing with the equalists, those guys felt like they were on a different level.” she admitted, thinking about how Lin had reacted to her question. “Doesn’t help that they can’t find anything out about said assistant, it’s like he doesn’t exist.”

“What do you mean?” Asami asked.

“I heard them talking, turns out the workers at the factory don’t know anything about him and the police have no record of him. Seems like Aojah lied to us.”

“Surely there is a logical explanation? Perhaps he’s a new arrival or changed his name.”

“Possibly but Chief Beifong seemed pissed about Aojah lying about it. Looked like she was about to lay down the law when I left.”

“Then what are we going to do?” Bolin asked

“We should look for him ourselves,” Korra unexpectedly announced to the group.

“Why?” Mako asked.

“I feel like we have to do something. These guns have felt wrong to me the moment I saw them and those that attacked us had even worse weapons. While I don’t think they are working with the equalists we still have to find them and Ralu before they do as I fear the entire city would be at risk with that kind of power in Amon’s hands,” she explained to the group. “So are you in?” she asked.

“You can count us in of course,” Mako replied. Bolin looked like he was going to say something else before nodding. “Asami?” Mako added.

“This isn’t really my thing,” she admitted glancing down at the floor. “But they did attack my father and Korra makes a compelling case. At the least we’ll be helping the police.”

“So where do we start?” Mako asked, turning to Korra.

“I suppose we start where it happened, the factory,” she replied as they turned to leave, images of cheap detective and adventure novels in her mind. They were going to crack this case.

After a brief check in on Tenzin, Pema was there so Korra decided to give them some privacy, they rode in Asami’s car to the factory. The place was still swarming with police officers along with a crowd of onlookers when they arrived. The burnt out remains of a police van and another two at the back of the building, presumably from the Equalist strike team, showed a lot had clearly been happening outside during the attack. As the group got out of the car, medical workers carried a stretcher with a body covered in a white sheet out of the building and into the back of a packed ambulance. “Must have been quite a fight,” Mako said as the ambulance drive away.

“Something like that,” Korra muttered. Death was always a risk in a bending fight but usually people stopped moving before that point. The scale of what had happened hadn’t really sunk in until that moment. “It will probably be worse inside,” she added and stepped forward towards the factory, only to be blocked by a policeman.

“This is an active crime scene ma'am. I can’t let you in,” the man said.

“Don’t you know you’re talking to the Avatar,” Bolin protested.

“I have my orders,” the policeman replied, glowring at him.

“I am assisting the police with the investigation,” Korra explained.

“The chief sent you?” The policeman raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

“Of course, and as part of councilman’s Tarrlok’s special task force.“ The policeman shifted slightly at the mention of the task force.

“Fine, you may enter. Don’t get in anyone’s way or contaminate the crime scene.” He stepped aside to let them past. “The other 3 with you?”

“They are assisting me in my enquiries,” she explained as they walked past.

“I thought you had left the task force?” Mako whispered as they walked into the factory.

“I took a leave of absence. I’m still technically on the force,” Korra explained.

“If they find out you lied we’ll all be in trouble,” Asami warned.

“Only if we don’t find something. If we crack the case I’m sure even Lin will forget it,” Korra argued.

The inside of the factory smelled like the aftertaste of fire bending but with a harsh metallic edge of it, must be the odor of the explosives used in the guns Korra observed. The air was also still hazy from the smoke, fragments of wall blown off in the fight and dust kicked up so many boots moving about. When they came to Aojah’s office they passed a mass of overlapping chalk outlines of where the equalist assault had fallen. The ground beneath them had been stained the dark sticky colour of blood. “Repeaters can do stuff like that in seconds,” Korra said as they passed, the rest of the gang staring in shock.

The actual workshop was a total mess. the wall they had earth bended was still there, though several parts have been partly unbended to allow access. Whatever had knocked most of them out have knocked over tables are chairs. Korra was a little bit perturbed to find a metal spike that had fallen off a shelf wedged into the ground right next to where she’d been thrown. Of the actual weapons there wasn’t much left. Whatever chemical devices the attackers had used have burned into and then melted the central mechanism. The larger type 1 and type 2 seemed relatively intact until you looked closed while the type 3 and type 4 were little more than junk. “So these were what everyone was so interested in?” Bolin asked, propping at the remains of the type 3. “I’d expected something more impressive.”

“They might not look like much until they fire,” Korra explained. “Well we better start investigating,” she said, turning to face the group.

“Any idea what we’re supposed to be looking for?” Mako asked. Korra paused, she hadn’t thought about this part.

“I don’t know, anything that stands out or doesn’t seem right,” she said. With a few unsure glances the group started their search.

Asami looked up from examining the remains of the type 2 when Korra reentered the room. “Discovered any clues?” she asked

“I’ve discovered the police don’t like the avatar standing over them,” Korra responded in a huff. Apart from that they’d drawn a blank, most of the evidence had already been carted away by the police and all that was left was the clean up crew and a deserted factory. The few remaining workers on site all told the same story, they didn’t know anything about a Ralu at the company or Aojah having an assistant. When she’d asked about the weapons their replies got even less specific, that it was all hush hush and they didn’t know much about it. She’d only found one man who knew anything more. 

“It all happened very suddenly,” the foreman explained, sitting down in his office chair. “Start of a new week the boss comes in and puts a halt to all projects and contracts to concentrate on the project. Might have been around that time I started seeing that man Ralu.”

“But you don’t know anything else?” she’d asked. The man rubbed his chin like he was trying to remember something.

“I’m sorry, I can’t can’t give you much more,” the man replied.

“That’s disappointing,” Asami said as Korra filled her in.

“So why are you looking at the weapons?” Korra asked.

“Something that occurred to me. You said that Aojah refused to talk about the weapon until Ralu was found?” 

“Yeah when Tarlok and your father turned up wanting to talk about getting the weapons into production off his plans he got super defensive and refused to discuss anything, a bit like he didn’t know what to do.” she replied.

“I’m not that surprised. I don’t think he really built these weapons.”

“How do you mean?” Korra asked, surprised at the accusation.

“The core receiver is cast. This workshop doesn’t have the facilities for that,” Asami pointed out, tapping on the melted remains.

“Couldn’t they have contracted them out? After all, would you have been able to identify gun parts if you didn’t know what one was?” Asami grimaced.

“Possible but given how obsessed with secrecy Aojah seemed it wouldn’t be his style. Plus there are other things wrong.”

“Like what?”

“There are no intermediate designs, failed experiments or even just incomplete parts.” She waved her arm around the room. “You don’t make technological keeps like this without running into some dead ends.

“How would you know?”

“I’ve spent enough time in my father’s workshop to know how engineering actually works,” Asami looked at her in mild annoyance. “ There are elements of the type 3 and 4 that scream of mass production. It's almost as if Ralu brought existing designs that were in production to Aojah and they tried to pass it off as their own.”

“That kind of thing happens?”

“More often than you think. Every now and again you get someone with some new revolutionary invention asking for investors. Usually it’s a pure fraud with smoke and mirrors or using stolen designs.”

“That doesn’t explain where they got what even your father called a leap in technology.”

“Yeah that's what I don’t get either,” Asami admitted, pursing her lip. Korra considered the finding, while it was certainly interesting it just posed more questions and didn’t get them any closer to Ralu.

Just then Bolin appeared at the entrance of the room. “Hey girls, we might have some info,” he said and waved for them to follow. They followed him to the factories loading dock and the burnt out equalist trucks where Mako was talking with one of the policemen.

“I’ve been finding out where the attackers went after they left the factory,” he explained to them. “Mind repeating what you told me to the avatar?” he asked the policeman.

“My pleasure,” the man said, sitting down on a packing case.

“The explosions had drawn a nearby police patrol that saw them leaving, they used some technique, possible combustionbending to cause the van to blow up. You probably saw it outside.” Korra shared a glance at Asami, clearly the police hadn’t been briefed on the weapons. “Another police van tried to block their escape but it simply smashed straight through. The survivors described it as a massive white thing, twice the size of anything on the road. They said it had a sloped front like an airship and a sliding side door from which they hurled a grenade at them.”

“Sounds like you lot took a beating,” Korra noted.

“The way the equalists have been given us the run around we’re getting used to it. Anyway they’d nearly escaped when a passing unit of the experimental motorcycle patrol spots them who give chase. They lead them on a merry chase over to Ziaju where the really weird thing happened.”

“Weirder than all this?” Korra waved at the burnt out trucks.

“Weird as in phasing through a brick wall weird. Now I admit I’m only relaying what I’ve heard but they’re saying the van charged straight across an intersection and passed straight through a brick wall and disappeared without leaving as much as a scratch,” the man replied.

“Could it have been some kind of trick or illusion?” Korra asked, she’d heard of spirits who could cast great illusions.

“Given one of the riders crashed headfirst into the wall a second later I doubt it. Thankfully the guy only ended up in the hospital.” 

“We should probably check the site out. It's the first solid clue we’ve had and I don’t think we’re going to find much more here,” Mako said. The rest of the group nodded in agreement.

“Before you go,” the policeman said as the group made to leave. “I was hoping you’d done something for me for giving you that information.” He pulled a small book out of his book.

“An autograph?” Bolin asked in surprise, recognising the type of book.

“It's for my kids you understand. They’d become a bit of a fan of you,” the man explained.

“Sure,” Mako replied, not entirely believing him and scribbled a quick signature in the pad, Bolin wrote a short message and a slightly bemused Korra wrote her last.

“You really call yourself that?” the man said in surprise when he looked at what she had written.

“Yeah, is it a problem?” Korra replied.

“No, just surprised,” the man said, putting the notebook away. “Hope you win the championship,” he called out to them as they left. 

It was only a short drive to the borough of Ziaju where the attackers had made their apparently miraculous disappearance. They found the spot reasonably easily, the police tape around the black mark on the wall where the motorcycle had crashed into it was an easy sign. Of the actual van it had been chasing the only sign it had been there were a few tire marks on the pavement, just as the policeman had said there wasn’t a mark on the wall. “Well I suppose we should check the local area,” Korra said after carefully bending one of the bricks away to stare into the empty warehouse on the other side. “If they went to ground this feels like the place I would do it.”

They searched the local area, like the area around Aojah’s factory it was mainly warehouses and the occasional cheap housing block. Their search didn’t show any signs of suspicious activity, though a few glaring looks from security guards and residents.

“I’d expected there to be more witnesses,” Korra noted. Looking around there were few delivery trucks on the rods and about the same number of people on the sidewalks.

“A lot of this part of Ziaju was supposed to be demolished for a new highway,” Mako explained, pointing at several abandoned buildings. We’d probably be standing in the middle of it now if the company behind it hadn’t gone bust.”

They retraced their steps to where Bolin and Asami were waiting. “Found anything?” Korra asked.

“Apart from a spider rat nest? Not much,” Asami replied, instinctively wiping something from her coat.

“Yeah this place is too big for us to search on our own,” Bolin said, looking at the surrounding buildings. “It would take a hundred policemen all day to search the borough.

“Meanwhile they could have simply moved Ralu on to another location,” Korra realised. In effect this trail was pretty much dead.

“So what do we do now?” Mako asked as everyone realised the same thing. Korra’s stomach rumbled and she realised she’d hadn’t eaten since breakfast.

“Go somewhere with food,” she muttered.

“Spirits, you actually eat this stuff?” Asami asked, spitting out a piece of rubbery meat fr

om the noodles at the dinner they’d found.

“Oh we’ve had worse,” Mako said, continuing to eat his own.

“Yeah sometimes we’d eat what places like this throw out,” Bolin explained. “Are you going to leave it?” he added, just having finished his own. 

“I already ate,” she said, sighing and pushed the carton over to him. “So let us review what we’ve learned.”

“Ralu seems to be the key to everything,” Mako said.

“Yeah it seems like he was the one that actually built the weapons and Aojah is just a frontman for him,” Korra continued, thinking back to what the attackers had said.

“But it turns out he doesn’t actually exist, or at least uses a fake name,” Asami finishes.

“While it does make sense, it doesn’t just us much to go on,” Mako noted. 

“Not like the police are having any luck tracing the kidnappers what with their magical disappearing van,” Korra said.

“Do you think it could be spirit world stuff?” Mako asked, looking at Korra. “You hear a lot of weird stories.”

“I don’t think so,” she said quickly, partly to cover up her limited knowledge about the spirit world. “It didn’t feel like spirit magic, their powers felt technological in nature, if you know what I mean.”

“So what is our next move?” Asami asked. Silence around the table apart from Bolin who was still eating. 

“Face it, we’ve just wasted several hours of our time learning nothing!” Korra snapped in frustration. This detective business didn’t seem as easy as Lin and the police made it seem.

“The thing I don’t get,” Bolin suddenly cut in, pausing from finishing Asami’s noodles. “Is how Aojah was able to pay a man that doesn’t exist. Even if he was in on it he would still have had to give him some payment?”

“That’s it!” Asami said standing up.

“What is?” Bolin looked around confused.

“What you said about Aojah paying Ralu, he could be referenced in the accounts books,” Asami explained, starting to make for the door. “You do want to solve this case?” she added as the rest of them were still seated.

“She might be onto something,” Korra admitted, getting up to follow her.

Most of the police had left by the time they returned to the factory, leaving only a few bored senties standing guard. They had no trouble getting access to the building. Inside wasn’t much different, a single team from the forensic science department finishing up in Aojah’s workshop. “Looks like the police already beat us to it,” Mako said as they entered the accounts department’s cluttered office, pointing to where several selves had been emptied.

“Looks like they’ve taken the employee records and the payroll,” Asami said looking at the plaques attached to the shelves. “Still we wouldn’t find what we are looking for there,” she added and moved over the room’s main desk where several large books were stacked. 

She sat down and started reading the book that had been left open with an incomplete entry, a blot of ink where the clerk must have dropped the pen when the attack had started. “What are we looking at?” Korra asked, peering over her shoulder, it seemed to be long columns of numbers and descriptions.

“These are the main accounts for the company,” Asami explained, pointing to the various columns. “A record of everyone that paid the company and vice versa. For example this was when they did the payroll,” she continued, pointing to a large withdrawal at the end of last week.

“So if they were paying Ralu...” Bolin began.

“It would be recorded here disguised as a normal transaction.” Asami finished for him.

“But how do we find it?” Korra asked, scanning the boo, there were thirty entries for yesterday alone.

“We start looking for any unexplained patterns. I think it's safe to expect Ralu would like to be paid at the same time each month. My father caught one of our accountants trying to defraud us the same way,” Asami explained, pulling over a notepad and pen. “I’m afraid this will take a bit of time,” she warned.

After an awkwardly long period of standing around as Asami worked Mako, Bolin and Korra went to a nearby empty office to do some bending practice. Ignoring the ‘unauthorised bending causes accidents’ sign Korra threw a variety of earth, water and fire attacks at Mako and then Bolin. Having the avatar on your team made training easier sometimes. “Any luck?” Korra asked Asami, poking her head back into the office after an errand disc had smashed a desk.

“Might have something,” she said, waving her over. Korra called Mako and Bolin to come in.

“So what have you found?” Korra asked, coming to stand next to her.

“I noticed these payments to something called Acme all take place on the same day each month,” she explained, flipping between several different pages.

“Sounds like a company of something,” Mako suggested.

“I thought about that but the amounts being withdrawn seem a bit too small for settling a bill, but they are just right for a month's wages. Plus the handwriting is different,” she pointed to an example. The normal straight thick strokes was replaced for a thin curvy script as if someone other than the accounts clerk had added the entry.

“You might be onto something,” Korra admitted.

“Main problem is there are no other details attached to it,” Bolin said, pointing to an empty section of the entry where an address would be.

In response Asami pointed towards the series of index card cabinets that filled one side of the room. “Lets home Aojah was a good record keeper,” she said, grabbing a stool to access one of the shelves. She pulled open a draw marked A and flipped through the cards inside until she came to the Ac section. Instead of an index or business card there was only a small piece of card, clearly ripped from a larger sheet. She brought it down to let the others see it. One one side was written ‘ACME’ in a thick pen and on the other side ‘Only contact me in an emergency’ and a quickly scribbled address.

“Feels like something you wouldn’t just file away. It feels more like something you kept on your person,” Mako noted.

“You haven’t met Aojah. I wouldn’t have put it past him to record that address in an address book and then filed the original way,” Korra argued.

“Well what matters is we now have a possible address. We might as well follow it.”

“Shouldn’t we tell the police about this?” Asami asked.

“No, lets first check it out first. Don’t want to give them a red squid-herring,” Korra countered. Plus if this did lead them to Ralu the credit wouldn’t get stolen by the police.

The address led them to a dingy apartment complex several districts away. Everyone could feel the lost dreams in the dust as they tramped up the flights of stairs. “Apartment 42,” Asami said, pointing to the door at the end of the corridor.

“Locked,” Mako noted, trying the handle. He knocked several times and received no answer.

“We could see if this place has a superintendent and get him to open the door,” Bolin suggested. Korra stepped forward and smashed the door open with a flying kick. “Or we could do that,” he muttered, checking around to see if anyone had heard them, assuming anyone cared.

Inside, the apartment was a mess. Every cupboard had been ransacked and its contents strewn on the floor. Even the furniture had been turned over. “Clearly someone got here before us. Looks like we are on the right track,” Asami observed.

“Why lock the door?” Korra asked. A quick sweep of the apartment shows no sign of forced entry and the door had been on the chain.

“Perhaps they want to let anyone know they’d been in?” Bolin suggested, turning the sofa back upright.

“Right up until you came in,” Mako pointed out.

“Well whatever the reason lets hope they left some clues,” Korra said.

They found little. While it was clear whoever had ransacked the room was looking for something in particular, they found a still full wallet in the bedroom, what they left behind didn’t speak much. While it was clear that somebody lived in the apartment, there were no personal flourishes to give an idea of what kind of man Ralu was. His wallet had nothing in it beyond cash and a card for a local restaurant, no writings or diaries, no sign of a social life, even his kitchen’s ice box was empty beyond the most basic items. Probably the most personality Korra found was when she flicked through one few books in the place, a rather dry work on how Aang ended the hundred years war to see a series of sarcastic comments in the margins. Comments like ‘No it didn’t happen like that’ or ‘I can see why they went with that’ had been added to almost every page. Clearly Ralu fancied himself a bit of a history buff.

“Something does feel right about this place,” Asami said as they checked the kitchen.

“Yeah it’s like Ralu didn’t do anything apart from work,” Bolin replied.

“No I don’t mean like that. You’re right though but I was talking about the apartment itself,” she explained.

“How do you mean?” Korra asked from the main room.

“I mean this stove looks like it's half a decade old yet it's only last year's model.” Asami pointed to the non fire bender ignition circuit on the device and its stained and rusted front.

“How would you know?” Bolin asked, clearly implying she only knew that detail because she was a woman.

“I do keep up with the latest business trends. The home appliance industry is booming,” she corrected him sharply.

“Perhaps he bought it second hand from a dinner,” Mako quickly suggested to diffuse the situation.

“Add it to the list of things about this that don’t make sense,” Korra commented.

She went into the bedroom and laid down on the bed to think. Either whoever had searched the place had found what they were looking for, and if so they were wasting their time searching or they’d hadn’t and there was something to find. If something was still here it had to be hidden. Now where would she put something she wanted to hide? Earth bend a hole and reseal it was her first thought but she realised there was no bendable material in the apartment and anyway Ralu didn’t appear to be a bender. Plus it took an expert not to leave an imperfection in the surface after you did it. 

She got up off the bed and looked around. If I was going to conceal something I would want it close to me she thought and started scanning the room looking for anything that stood out. She started idly drumming her finger along the base of the bed as she did so. She paused and looked at the bed, it was a traditional design with the mattress on a wooden dias instead of a bedstead. She started knocking against the edge of the dias. Yeah this might be a good place to hide something. The sound of her knocking changed from one block of wood to the next. She stopped and examined the block and pulled at it. A perfectly disguised seam opened up to reveal a hidden compartment. “Guys I think I’ve found something!” she called out. 

“What have you found?” Mako asked as everyone rushed to the bedroom.

“Don’t know yet,” Korra replied and reached into the compartment. Her hands felt something and she withdrew a thick notebook. “Look like we’ve found his diary or something,” she commented and opened it. The handwritten script was in some kind of obscure language or code because she couldn’t make out anything in it, the angled letters almost made her eyes slide off the page trying to focus on them. “Can any of you make any sense of this?” she asked, handing the book to the rest.

“Never seen anything like this,” Asami said after looking at it and handing it to Mako. “Is there anything else in there?”

“Nah,” Korra replied, her hand scrabbling around the small space. 

“Wait a minute,” she said and paused. There was something pressed up against the back of the compartment. She wedged her fingernails under the edge and prised the object out and examined it. It was a small slab of black glass about the size of her hand, there appeared to be something inside it as you couldn’t see through it but it had no obvious seam.

“What is it?” Mako asked.

“No idea,” she replied and poked it. The object gently vibrated under her touch. “What the spirits?” she muttered, nearly dropping it in surprise. The object gave an electronic bleep and an orange line appeared from the middle of one of the larger faces, there was a soft click and a blue ring appeared, rippling out across the surface and disappearing. A few seconds later there was another click and the rin appeared again. She looked up at everyone’s baffled faces. “Well we certainly found something.”


End file.
